Chapter 9: Research

Archer was deep in thought as his eyes moved over the latest letter he had received. He and his troop had made camp just outside the village where their friends were still being treated in the hospital.

They had decided to stay until they were allowed to leave and to follow the investigation for the killer as closely as possible. They had now stayed a week, which meant that they would surely miss cotillion.

As much as he liked Ben though, Archer wanted to see out the end of the investigation.

So far, they had searched the river three times, from the point where the killer had fallen to ten more miles downstream. They had scoured the local woods but had thus far come up empty with everything. It seemed as though the killer had vanished into thin air, but Archer knew that as long as they persisted, they would eventually find something.

Since he had made this location his temporary headquarters, the place had been bombarded with military related mail. These were mostly mission reports from his previous station, with the occasional update or question on the situation in the mountains.

He had been reading the latest update from the mountain when a soldier entered his tent and saluted him.

"At ease." Archer said. "What is it?"

"The rickshaw has been found sir." The soldier replied quickly.

"What!?" Archer said loudly, his interest in the letter immediately forgotten. "Where?"

"In a ditch near the road to Malloryton sir. It had been covered up with branches and leaves to make it less detectable."

"When was it found?" Archer asked.

"Just now sir. We just got the call."

"Then it hasn't been inspected yet." Archer said as walked for the exit. "Back to your post soldier." He said, and the soldier saluted him.

It took him about an hour to reach the place where the rickshaw had been found. He had called his troop and they had all ridden out to inspect it.

Archer and his troop met three other soldiers at the middle of a small road, near where the rickshaw had been found. The soldiers had already dragged it out of the ditch and placed it at the side of the road.

"Has anyone looked inside yet?" Archer asked one of the soldiers.

"No sir, we had our orders to wait for you." He replied.

"Good." Archer said as he approached the rickshaw. He opened the back and looked inside. He saw a variety of jars, flasks, bottles and boxes, all labeled with names of herbs and spices. At first glance, nothing seemed that out of the ordinary. "Come take a look at this." He told Lancelot, who approached the vehicle.

He looked around the back, picked up some jars to inspect what was written on them, and inspected the floor to look for any possible hidden compartments. "Nothing out of the ordinary." Lancelot said. "Everything is still here."

"As I expected." Archer said as he turned to the rest of his friends. "It was just a getaway vehicle, nothing personal against the herbalist."

"But why would he need a vehicle?" Aden asked. "Especially this rickshaw, it barely goes any faster than running speed."

Archer pondered this, before getting called back by Lancelot. "Wait, Archer take a look here."

With some excitement Archer turned to Lancelot again, only to see he was pointing at a blank spot on the floor of the back. "What is it?" he asked.

"This empty space, things have been specifically moved to create it. My guess is the killer placed something here." Lancelot replied.

"So, you're saying he transported something?" Archer asked.

"Exactly. It was probably something heavy, or impractical. Something that would be hard to transport on foot."

"Which would explain why he took the rickshaw." Royce intervened. "It was probably the first vehicle he encountered."

"What could he have been transporting?" Alex asked and the whole troop started thinking.

"Why couldn't we have taken the rickshaw when we first went back to the town?" Archer said annoyed. "Whatever the killer was transporting had still been in there."

"There is no use in pondering that now." Lancelot said. "There's not much else we can learn from the rickshaw, I say we head back to base camp and discuss our next steps there."

"That's fine." Archer said. "Have the rickshaw be moved to evidence, after that you can report back to camp." Archer told the other three soldiers, who saluted him. The troop then got on their horses and headed back to base camp.

"We really don't have any leads?" Archer asked his compatriots loudly. "Nothing!? Not a single sighting, a trail, a footprint!?" he rambled on. After they had returned, they all went to Archer's tent to look at the latest updates on the investigation on the killer.

"Nothing." Aden replied while spinning a pencil in his hand. "It's like he vanished of the face of the earth."

"He's not a ghost!" Archer yelled. "He's still here, he must be!"

"What did you expect?" Alex said. "If this guy is genuinely from the isle or the victim of some ancient curse, he surely would not have left a trail of bread crumbs."

"Why does this bother you so much anyway?" Royce asked. Archer gave him a cold stare and he quickly raised his hands. "I mean, I know he killed one of our soldiers and shit, but if we can't find anything on him, how do we go on? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life chasing this dude?"

"Of course not. I just don't want any more people getting hurt. I want the kingdom to stay safe." He said.

"So why stay here?" Royce said, "Let the official investigators handle this, we have an education to follow at Auradon prep next year. You have already done so much Archer, people won't judge you for taking a break."

Archer smiled at this. "I can already see the tabloids. Auradon general hands in math homework a day late." He said, and the others laughed. "They'll take me for a joke."

"They'll take you for someone who wishes to be educated in order to become a sufficient ruler." Lancelot said. "Even the paparazzi know you can't become a wise king just by being able to swing your sword, no offence."

"None taken." Archer replied.

"We're not saying you should forget about it." Alex said. "It just won't hurt any of us to continue with our daily lives. And when we get on this asshole's trail again, we'll take him down once and for all." The rest gave a slight cheer.

"You really are the one for speeches." Archer smiled at Alex. "You guys are right; this obsession isn't good for me. And I have been working quite hard for about six years now." He said, and the rest laughed again. "I do wonder what it's like to go to high school."

"Oh, the horrors of war are nothing compared to it." Aden said dead serious. "You know." He continued in a softer tone. "I hear that people there actually have girlfriends."

The rest was roaring of laughter as Archer kicked Aden of his seat with an annoyed expression. "You really won't ever shut up about that?"

"Not until any change in the situation is confirmed." Aden said smiling as he climbed back on his chair.

"I guess I should prepare for a lot more jokes then." Archer said grimly.